Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1887-07-23
dimly that perhaps his body would protect
her from the hnllafs

dimly that perhaps his body would protect
her from the bullets.
Rip! rip! through the wood and canvas:
phut! phut! through the air; but some mer-
ciful power protected them, and though one
cut Johns coat and two passed through the
skirt of Jess dress, not a bullet struck them.
And very soon the shooting began to grow
wild, and then that dense vail of rain came
down and wrapped them so close that even the
lightning could not show their whereabouts
to the assassins on the bank.
stop shooting" said Frank Muller; Tho
cart has sunk, and there is an end Of them.
No human being can have lived through that
fire and the Eaal in flood"
The W Beers ceased firing, and the Uni
corn shook his head softly and remarked to
his companion that the damned English peo-
pie in the water could not be much wettcr
than they were Oh the bank. 1t was u Curl
GUS thing to say Mt such Il moment, hut prob.
ably the spirit that animated the remark was
not so much callousness as that which ami
mated Cromwell, who tipped the ink i'll his
neighbours face when he signed the death
warrant Of his king.
Muller was also thinking of the warrant
which lie had forged. He must get it back
somehow, even if
"Iet us take shelter under the bank there.
There is Il flat place, about fifty yards up,
where the bank lies over. This rain is
drowning us. We can't ursaddle till it
clears. | must have a nip Of brandy, too.
Almighty! l can sec that girls face now!
the lightning shone OF it just as l shot. Well,
she will be i'll heaven now, poor thing, ii
English people ever go to heaven"
1t was tho Unicorn who spoke, and the
Vildcrbeeste made no reply, but advanced
with him to where the horses stood. They
took the patient brutes that wcrc waiting for
their masters, their heads well down and the
water streaming from them, and led them
along with them. Frank Muller stood by his
own horse thinking. and watched them
vanish into tho gloom. How was he to get
that warrant back without dycing his hands
even redder than they We're:
As he thought, an answer came. For ut
that moment, accompanied by a fearful
thunderclap, there shot from the storm over
head, which had now nearly passed away,
one of those awful flashes that sometimes end
an African tempest. 1t lit up tho whole
scene round as light as day, and right in the
white heart Of it Muller saw his two COM
panions in crime and their horses as the great
king saw the men in tho furnace. They were
about forty PAGES from him, on the crest Of
tho bank. He saw them, one moment erect;
the next-men and horses falling this way
and that, prone to the earth. And then it
was all dark again. He staggered with tho
shock, and when it had passed rushed to tho
spot, calling tho men by name; but no an-
swer came, except the echo Of his voice. lie
was there now, and the moonlight began to
struggle faintly through the rain. Its pale
beams lit upon two outstretched forms-onc
lying on its back, its distorted features gazing
up to heaven, tho other on its face. BY them,
the legs Of tho nearest sticking straight into
the air, lay the two horses. They had gone
to their account. The lightning had killed
them, as it kills many an innocent man in
Africa.
Frank Muller looked; and then, forgetting
about tho warrant and everything elso In tho
horror of what he took to bo a visible judg-
ment, rushed to his horse md galloled wildly
away, pursued by all tho terrois of hell.